Page 129 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

The shading of rocks and crags.

and contrast of the blue and green. The artist also at the base of snow mountains and grass-covered
sometimes painted blue-green crags in combination with mountains, as well as in combination with the blue-
brown stratified crags to create an even more intricate green crags described above.
rocky outcropping. The artist prepared a pale brown base coat for
Although the main base colours were blue and this type of crag by combining orpiment, minium, ink
green, these colours did not fill the whole area of the and a little white. Then for shading this undercoat he
rocks. The painter applied the blue and green paints used the reddish-brown dye of sandalwood. Since the
only to the outer half of each band in the design, thickly designs for these crags were composed of a series of
near the edges and gradually thinner towards the middle. bands (representing rock layers or striations), the
The shading of this type of rock consisted of filling in shading took place within each band. But instead of
the unpainted parts of each band with a contrasting dye shading the outer edges of each band he left the outside
colour. Our artist in this case used the reddish-brown the light undercoat hue, and it was the inner recesses of
sandalwood dye for tinting the bands with blue, and the the design that received the dark shading.
same dye or a yellow wash was used for the spaces
opposite the green. Alternatively he sometimes used Repetitive Designs
gold facing the green strips. These colours were applied
in much the same way as the blue and green paints: Wangdrak was one of the few of our informants
darker near the edges of the bands and fading out who regularly depicted rocky crags using repetitive
gradually toward the middle. The opposing colours designs. He almost always drew these crags as out-
within one band did not actually touch, but faded into croppings that adjoined a body of water, and one of the
the base colour near their juncture. basic shapes he used was:

Brown Crags

A second irregular rock design employed by Legdrup
Gyatsho consisted of steep, vertically stratified cliffs
or outcroppings. He coloured such crags brown, and With slight irregularities from section to section, and by
commonly placed them in the landscape composition internal repetition of the same design elements, he

THE SHADING OF PARTICULAR OBJECTS 125